254 CONSIDERATE COURSE OF TOLICY. 



would not allow Surdars, from mere consider- 

 ation of tlieir rank, to set the law at defiance ; 

 but wlien the offence was of a kind that no 

 injury could arise from its being passed over, I 

 think something of the rigour of the law might 

 be dispensed with, and in carrying out the law, 

 where its execution was unavoidable, I think 

 the same regard should be had to their feelings, 

 and the feelings of their families, as would be 

 shown if a European gentleman of high rank, or 

 his wife, or son, or daughter, had been un- 

 fortunate enough in like manner to become 

 amenable to our courts." 



"Wliilst, however, thus advocating this con- 

 siderate course of policy, Colonel Rathborne 

 is decidedly hostile to any exemption. " No 

 man," says he, " who understands breaking 

 either men or horses, will ever worry either by 

 ill-treatment, but once at least in the outset, in 

 either case, it often happens that one has to 

 show, unmistakably, which is for the futm-e to 

 be master. There never was a Government 

 perhaps, situated as Sir Charles Napier's was, 

 that had so little trouble, and solely from this 

 cause. There was not a single punishment for 

 a political offence during the whole period that 



